Tour de France Femmes starts in Rotterdam, comes to Belgium later

The third edition of the Tour de France Femmes, the seven-day Tour de France for women, starts in the Netherlands today/Monday. Last year’s winner Demi Vollering of Team SD Worx - Protime is again the top favourite. The cycling race also comes to Belgium: the fourth stage finishes in Liège on Wednesday and the fifth starts in Bastogne.

Over seven days, there will be eight stages in this year’s Tour de France Femmes. The start is in Rotterdam, with a first stage of 123 km to The Hague. Tomorrow's stage goes from Dordrecht back to Rotterdam. There will also be a short time trial there tomorrow afternoon.

On Wednesday, the riders will come to Belgium by cycling from Valkenburg to Liège, in a stage that resembles a shorter version of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic. The day after, they start in Bastogne, before crossing over to France. The final weekend takes place in the Alps, with Sunday's final day ending on the iconic Alpe d'Huez in France.

The favourites

The sprinters will be happy with the first two flat stages on Dutch soil. The top favourite to win the first stage, and thus also the first yellow jersey, is Dutch powerhouse Lorena Wiebes of Team SD Worx - Protime. Her main rivals are also from the Netherlands: Charlotte Kool of DSM-Firmenich-PostNL and living legend Marianne Vos of Visma-Lease a Bike.

To further underline the Dutch dominance in women’s cycling: the big favourite to win the general classification, Demi Vollering, hails from the Netherlands as well. She won the Tour de France last year and this year was already victorious in the tours of Spain, Basque Country, Burgos and Switzerland.

Some of her main rivals are absent. Belgian world champion Lotte Kopecky, who finished second in the Tour de France last year, cannot take part because she was still competing at the Olympic track cycling event yesterday. Italian Elisa Longo Borghini had to cancel her participation due to a crash in training. Poland's Kasia Niewiadoma, who came in third last year, seems to be the only one left who can threaten Vollering. Important outsiders are Juliette Labous of DSM-Firmenich-PostNL and Shirin van Anrooij and Gaia Realini, both of the Lidl-Trek team.

On the Belgian side, the biggest names are Justine Ghekiere, Julie De Wilde, Julie Van de Velde and Marthe Truyen. A total of eight Belgian women are on the start list.

^{The final podium of the Tour de France Femmes of 2023 © BELGA PHOTO PRESSE SPORTS}